Saturday, September 28, 2013

I was once asked, “If you could go back and rewrite The Hidden Sun, what would you change?”
My initial response was any technical issues like formatting and typos. (Which
I ended up doing for the third edition of the book.)

My second thought was about the story itself. Would I change
anything knowing what I know now?

The answer is a resounding, “NO!”

But why?

I am nearly done with my Master’s Degree in creative
writing. I have learned so much which has improved my writing and understanding
of the process. My current work-in-progress incorporates what I’ve learned. So far,
it’s coming along nicely.

And yet, there is something innocent about The Hidden Sun. In writing it, I tried
to emulate the story techniques I preferred as well as adding a few twists of
my own. I wrote the book without knowing exactly how I was going to resolve the
mess I made for my characters, but that was part of the fun: figuring it out alongside
them.

When I write now, I often think of some of the rules and
elements I’ve learned while not only working on my Master’s, but also from
having completed five novels. For some reason, I feel like I’ve lost a little
of the wonder of the creative process.

Is it because I’m aware of more “rules?” Possibly. Is it
because I’ve done this enough now that I’m desensitized to the feeling of
wonder? Perhaps.

It’s not unlike how my youngest child can play with Legos
for hours using only her imagination to create an entire world. I use to be
able to do that. I can still play with Legos if I wanted to—but it’s not quite
the same.

Can I make better Lego creations using my life experience?
Certainly. Just as I’m sure my books will continue to improve in quality—at least
from how “experts” judge books.

Still, I can’t help but feel a bit sad if I’ve now grown enough
as a writer that I’ve lost that sense of innocence…

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Yesterday, I was called a racist. And it really bothered me.
It bothered me because I honestly
believe I’m not racist. In addition, it bothered me because I don’t feel like
the comment was warranted.

So, why was I called a racist? I’ll tell you.

At this point in my life, I write full time (my fifth novel
was just released), I’m finishing my Master’s degree in Creative Writing, and I
substitute teach—mainly at high schools.

At the start of each class I substitute for, I do a little
object lesson. I tell the class I’ve never lost at tic-tac-toe. I even draw the
game on the board. I ask if anyone thinks they can beat me. I usually have a
ton of volunteers.

I pick the first person to raise their hand. I let the
student choose if they want to be X or O and even let them go first. Most often
they pick a corner square, for whatever reason. (They almost always pick X as
well. Weird!)

When it is my turn, I draw three Os (or Xs if they pick Os)
in three separate boxes and then draw a line through my moves. I then tell the
student they lost.

Inevitably, someone in the class says, “You cheated!”

I ask them what they mean, and they tell me I was only
supposed to go once. I ask, “Says who?” They say, “Says the rules!”

I then clarify by saying, “Oh! So if there are rules, and I
don’t follow them, that’s a bad thing?” (See where this is going?)

The students agree it’s a bad thing. That’s when I show them
the rules for the classroom.

The first rule is simple: “Respect each other.” I explain
that this means to keep your hands off of other people and other people’s
stuff. There won’t be any bad language in the class. Also, there will not be
any negative things said to another person like, “You’re stupid!” Also, when
the teacher is talking, you shouldn’t talk. There are students who actually
want to learn and if you are being a disruption, you aren’t being respectful.

I am quite clear on what I expect.

Almost always someone breaks the first rule within the first
five minutes. When they do, I walk to their desk, stand next to them and ask
them to tell me what the first rule is. (Which I have written on the board.)
99% of the time, that solves any issues for the rest of the class.

Yesterday was one of the 1%.

I was teaching a math class—actually teaching students how
to solve equations!—and one young lady felt it was more important to tell the
person next to her what her boyfriend said to someone else. I nicely went to
the side of her desk and asked her the first rule. She told me. I asked her to
please stop talking while I was teaching. She did. For about two minutes.

I went to her desk again, and this time I told her she knew
the rule and wasn’t following it. In my opinion she was being disruptive. I
told her if she disrupted class again, I’d have her removed. None of this was
said in a hostile tone—though I was firm.

She lasted two more minutes before she started talking
again. I called for an administrator who came to take her out of the class.
When she left, she told the administrator I was racist because if she had been
a white girl, I wouldn’t have kicked her out of class.

I was shocked.

This is my personal belief: I believe that I have a Heavenly
Father and every person on this Earth are my brothers and sisters—regardless of
the color of their skin, religious beliefs, gender, where they live or any
other category the world uses to define people. I also believe that everyone
has the right to believe what they want to believe.

I will also admit that there are some individuals I avoid
and some I’m drawn to. What makes the distinction? For me, it is how they treat
others.

I like to be around people who are kind. I like to be around
people who are accepting of others. I like to be around people who look to lift
other people up.

I don’t like to be around people who are mean. I don’t like
to be around people who are judgmental. I don’t like to be around people who
strive to tear other people down.

In the case of the girl who was removed from class, the
color of her skin had nothing to do
with her getting removed from class. It was her actions.

Frankly, I’m tired of racism on any level. If we want racism
and racist behavior to end, everyone
needs to end it. Not just those in the perceived majority.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

I believe that writers can’t help but include part of
themselves in everything they compose. I know for my first four books that
there were characters who reflected my personality. In The Hidden Sunthe character Bertram had a lot of my quirks. (If
you haven’t read it yet, I’m not going to spoil it!)

If it’s true that writers include part of themselves in
their work, it’s understandable that they can be hurt if they get a bad review.
People have gone as far as to call their books as their “children” and when a
book is released, it’s as if the author gave birth to it.

As a man, I can’t say I can speak to how the two of them
compare physically, but I can say it’s a pretty emotional experience when a
book is set free for the world to be read and judged.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, the day I posted this blog
is the same day my 5th novel was “born.” It’s called Wall of Faith.

There are several things that make this book different from
my other books. First, the book is told in first person, meaning the character
uses “I” statements. Example: “I fell down the stairs.”

Second, the book is a different genre. My other books are
liberally labeled “fantasy” (though I disagree somewhat). Wall of Faith is categorized as religious. It is, after all, the
story of a young Mormon missionary.

Third, the book is based on a true story.

As of this moment, my guess is that there are going to be
people who love this book, and those who hate it. I doubt many people will be
in the middle. Since this is by far my most personal book, I have to remind
myself not to take the bad reviews personally—though it won’t be easy.

But as an author, that’s the risk you take when you share
your work. My guess is that this book will help many people who share the
issues James Williams struggled with. I hope so. That was my intention.

Still, I predict there will be those that call me out for
not portraying the missionary life as “the best two years.” To that, I respond,
“that’s kind of the point.”

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

People often ask me, “Where do you get your ideas?” For me, at least, they’ve come from different sources. The idea for “The Hidden Sun” came from a scene I had in a dream. “The Waxing Moon” was based on a setting I thought of while editing “The Hidden Sun.” “The Zealous Star” was based on plot that came to me while writing “The Waxing Moon.” “The Mirror of the Soul” was based on a song from Chris de Burgh. “Wall of Faith” was based on a character (and actual events). When an author writes a book, the process usually starts with an idea for a character, setting or plot. Once in a while, you’ll hear an author start with their intended audience in mind. For example: “I want to write a middle-grade book.” It’s been interesting as I’ve worked toward my Master’s degree in Creative Writing how many people in my classes don’t consider who will read their stories. Often, when I ask them that question, they don’t have an answer. But does it matter? I’m going to make the following stand: yes it does. When I write my books, I want my daughters to be able to read them. That doesn’t mean they are all fluffy and full of puppies. Actually, my books are rather intense. Knowing who my audience is helped me decide what details to include and which ones to leave out. I posted an interesting question to a group of authors recently. I asked, “Would this be considered taking the Lord’s name in vain?” I then included the sentence in question, which was, “It’s not a claim. God knows, I wish it was,” Zachariah said. The response from the other authors was fascinating. Some were adamant that as it was written, it was taking the Lord’s name in vain—they even provided proof. And others were quite sure that it wasn’t taking the Lord’s name in vain—and they gave proof. Why did I ask the question and why do I care? Because I have never included any swear words in any of my books. I guess I’m trying to prove a point that engaging books don’t have to rely on using swear words or graphic violence and sex. In addition, the feedback I’ve gotten from readers has been overwhelmingly positive that I’ve written “clean” books which aren’t boring. So, what did I decide to do about the sentence where I thought I might be taking the Lord’s name in vain? I thought about my audience. If some of the authors considered it a swear word, than most likely many of my readers would as well. My solution? I changed the line to: “It’s not a claim. Heaven knows, I wish it was,” Zachariah said.